41/42
This is Michel Hazanavicius’ first animated film
In war-torn times, a poor woodcutter and his wife live in a vast forest. One day, the woman finds and saves a girl, bringing an irreversible change to the couple’s lives, and the child crosses paths with those who…
It tells a story set in Poland during WWII, like a folktale
This is the best 2024 release I’ve seen so far this year and we’re in mid-December 2024. Most of the plot takes place, typical for the aforementioned folktales, as a pair of woodcutters turn to adopt a Jewish girl who is thrown off a train deported through their forest.
Everything is well done on the technical side as well
She was thrown away by her father to save her from certain death in Auschwitz. I won’t go into the details of the plot any further, so you can see them for yourself, I just want the film to come to a deeply philosophical conclusion.
The visuals of the film are excellently done
The style of drawing is very precise, not too detailed or harsh, showing scenes in mostly poor lighting with a dominant grayscale, which emphasizes the horror of the most infamous war and genocide in human history. Then the soundtrack is sublime: the musical score, the sound effects, the narration and the voice acting (I saw the original in French), all of which are perfectly suited to presenting this gem.
Finally, it is one of the best films on the subject of racism and the Shoah in particular, both in terms of its artistic procedure and the story it wants to tell
The film.